Money may not be able to buy you love, but the money New Jersey's GTT Audio & Video invested in quality equipment helped create a different world of sonic refinement than I encountered in most rooms. Listening to a track from Ben Webster's Ben's Blues, I marveled at the beautiful warmth, natural sound of cymbals and piano, and most of all, at the stunning depiction of Webster's saxophone that left me feeling as though I had dived right into the center of the instrument. What luscious sound!

The room sponsored by Newform Research itself, as opposed to the adjacent Happy Sounds room that was dominated by Newform Research speakers (see below), was built around Newform Research's triple-stacked LineSource Monitors ($6800). Although less expensive that the No Hold Barred Coaxial Ribbon LineSource speakers, less brought more, in the way of a really nice, solid presentation that was a delight to listen to in the sweet spot. I don't know what was playing—there was a lot of activity in the room, and the hosts were quite busy—but I do know that the remaining equipment in the $9800 system included the Onkyo TX-SR 818 receiver ($1300), four Atak Sub 12s / Crown 1000w amplifier combos ($1680), and a Sony Blu-ray player ($129). Also shown, but not playing when I entered, are Newform Research's Ribbon Pyramid speakers ($2720/pair).

Happy Sounds? Jacintha didn't seem to be laughing her way through "Light My Fire," but the sound was definitely pleasingly smooth and solid, if a bit dry and with a grayish background. The intriguing-looking speakers were Newform Research's No Holds Barred Coaxial Ribbon LineSource ($11,400/pair). Claimed to be "the first in the world to implement a coaxial ribbon linesource configuration," they contain high-impedance, wide-dispersion, monopole ribbons.

The folks from Happy Sounds of Japan were doing everything in their power to tame reflections in their room. Here's the left side of the room; the right was just as interesting. I can't recall if they also requested some of the room treatment from ATS Acoustics that AXPONA made available to anyone who requested it.

Don't let appearances fool you. Those pipes you see in the photo are actually Bigston single-driver loudspeakers with built-in amplifiers. Designed in Japan and manufactured in Elk Grove Village, IL, the Bigston speaker systems have been designed to give an accurate representation of a soundfield as recorded at a live performance. The smallest of the lot, the Light ($300/pair with 3Wpc amplification), is designed specifically for use with laptops etc., and comes complete with a travel case.

An extremely healthy looking Dan Wright of Modwright Instruments, Inc. greeted me as I entered the room wired with Dynamic Design cabling. Treated to the CD version of Cantate Domino, the sound of a Scandinavian choir singing "Stille Nacht" (Silent Night) in German was exceptionally smooth and lovely, if a bit gray around the edges. Then again, aren't many of us these days?

Together with Chicago retailer Holm Audio, Nordost was conducting one of its ever-popular cable and support demos. Taking over where the now retired Lars Christensen left off, Nordost Eastern Regional Sales Jefe Steve Greene let folks hear differences between Blue Heaven, Red Dawn LS, Heimdall 2, and Frey 2 interconnects, speaker cables and power cords by calling into play a Hegel H300 250Wpc integrated amp with built-in DAC ($5500), Hegel CDP4A CD player ($4000), Sony's new SS-NA2ES loudspeakers ($10,000/pair), and, from Nordost, a QB8 distribution bar ($1399.99), two QV2 AC Line Harmonizers ($350 each), and a QX4 Electro-Magnetic Field Stabilizer ($2699.99). Nordost's three levels of equipment support Sort Kones were also compared.

It's always a challenge, in a room filled with unfamiliar equipment, to pinpoint what's causing what. All I know is that on the 7th floor, in the room wired with $8000 worth of Silnote Audio Cables, the midrange on a recording of the Talking Crows was simply beautiful, if a bit dry.

Allowing Showgoers to calibrate their ears as he has done at prior AXPONA shows, pianist John Yurick did a great job in the DoubleTree's lobby. Sunday afternoon, as I was leaving for the airport, John was joined by someone playing standards from the American songbook on a chromatic harmonic—luvverly music!

Yes, that's a dub LP from Bob Marley and the Wailers you can see in the Music Hall room at AXPONA. It was being played on the forthcoming Ikura turntable (price still to be decided, probably around $1000), with the new Creek EVO-50A integrated amplifier ($1195) and a pair of Music Hall's budget-priced Marimba speakers ($350/pair). The Marimba was designed by Roy Hall hisself, and is made in China; it will be reviewed by Stephen Mejias in our June issue). At $250/pair, the stands cost almost as much as the speakers!